North Dakota failed to inform the public of 100s of oil spills over last two years - report

North Dakota, which ranks second in the US in terms of oil production, endured almost 300 oil spills in under two years and yet managed to avoid reporting a single one of them to the public, according to a new report.

Documents viewed by the Associated Press indicate that, since
January 2012, as many as 750 “oil field incidents” were
recorded in North Dakota. The distinction between spills and
incidents was not immediately clear but presumably was related to
the magnitude of the accident.

North Dakota, which borders Canada and has an estimated
population of under 700,000 people, is like many other states
heavily involved in oil production in that it is not required by
law to inform the public about oil spills. Yet with the
potentially devastating consequences a spill could have in a
state that relies on farming and water resources, citizens have
begun lobbying for greater access to information.

Dennis Fewless, director of water quality for the state Health
Department, told the AP lawmakers and regulators in North Dakota
are also reconsidering the current state of affairs after a wheat
farmer stumbled across a major oil spill last month. That
incident was not made public knowledge until 11 days later, when
reporters asked. Questions have also been raised as to whether
the relationship between the pipeline’s operator, Tesoro
Logistics, with regulators is too close for comfort.

“We’re certainly looking at that now and what would be a
threshold for reporting to the public,” he said. One option
he said regulators are considering is a method to better track
the spills that occur. Officials “really have to dig through
our database to get specifics,” he said of the current
situation.

North Dakota pumps out millions of barrels of oil every day and
installed nearly 2,500 miles of new transport pipelines in 2012.
There is now enough pipeline, a total of about 17,500 miles, in
North Dakota to travel the distance from Los Angeles, California
to New York City. The state ranks behind only Texas as the most
productive, yet farmers are still unaware that the land they till
every season could be tainted.

“What you don’t know, nobody is going to tell you,” Louis
Kuster, a wheat farmer located near the north-western city of
Stanley, said. Kuster explained how, earlier this month, he
watched as truckloads of oily dirt were driven away from a nearby
farm.

“We have no idea how big the spill is and why it
happened,” he said, speculating it may have been from a
broken pipeline although no one can be quite sure. “I’d try to
get more information from the state but I’m too busy getting my
harvest in.”

In 2013 alone there have already been 291 so-called “incidents.”
Of the roughly 2,209 barrels that were lost, all but 490 were
contained and cleaned up at the well site. Most of the spills
that companies reported to the state totaled less than 10
barrels.

Nearly 500 barrels of oil spilled in 2012, the result of 153
pipeline leaks.

“That’s news to us,” said Don Morrison, director of
the environmentally-minded Dakota Resource Council. “The
public really should know about these. If there is a spill,
sometimes a landowner may not even know about it. And if they do,
people think it’s an isolated incident that’s only happening to
them.”